Auti-sim lets you experience the horror of sensory overload

Creator wants to help players gain empathy and understanding of autistic children.

You stand in a dirt field under a beautiful blue sky. A few meters away, a group of kids are shrieking and playing happily on a jungle gym. As you walk forward, though, you notice the kids are actually faceless statues, staring blankly back at you. Their shrieking gets almost deafeningly loud as you approach, layered on top of monotone schoolyard rhymes and songs. The idyllic visuals start to get fuzzy, too, like the world is caught between reality and the static on a dead analog TV station. Your only relief is to quickly retreat back to the safety of your starting place.

It might sound like a new horror game, but the experience above actually describes Auti-sim, a small but thought-provoking first-person indie game about hypersensitivity in autistic children. The game was recently created by a team of three during Vancouver's Hacking Health weekend hackathon. Besides being one of the creepiest indie "short subjects" you'll play this year, the game also gives players a brief glimpse into what it's like for the millions of autistic children suffering from sensory overload issues.

"I wasn't really aiming to simulate what hypersensitivity actually is," team lead Taylan Kadayifcioglu (who goes by Taylan Kay) told Ars. "My goal was to elicit the same kind of reaction from a neurotypical person. So the goal was basically to irritate the hell out of your senses."

Auti-sim gameplay sample.

Kay said the game was partly inspired by an excerpt from the documentary Inside Autism, which uses similar audio and video filters to convey the overwhelming experience of sensory overload. As the video's creator put it, "my brain loses its capability for cognition. It crashes like a computer." Kay said he "thought that it would be such a powerful experience from a first-person perspective and a good project to take on for a weekend."

But Kay said he was also driven by stories from his wife, a social worker who runs therapy groups for people with special needs and their families. "One of the groups is actually working with [neurotypical] siblings of kids with special needs," he said. "They have trouble understanding what their siblings are going through.... [they] feel neglected because their sibling is getting all the attention. In some cases the child might act out and target their sibling. The neurotypical siblings might not be able to understand what they did wrong to deserve it."

Feedback on the game has been "generally very positive," Kay said, with many people with autism thanking the team for creating a way to effectively communicate "exactly what it feels like for me." He also reported positive feedback from people who work with autistic children, who realize when playing the game that they are "displaying behaviors and reacting in ways that they have seen children in real life do."

One of the strongest reactions may have been from Krista Howarth, a special needs educator who served as "autism advisor" on the project. "She was saying that through all her training she'd never had an experience like this," Kay said. "So imagine you were trying to help people with an issue like this, but you have no idea what it feels like. I think in that way it's really powerful and helpful."

There has been some negative feedback too, including messages from some autistic people who said the game is nothing like their experience. Others have taken exception to such an abstract game with "sim" as part of its title. "Criticism is also good in that it creates conversation, and you can still learn something about your own condition, even if you have other experiences," Kay said. "It doesn't mean you know everything about autism just because you have it.... It's more of a statement on how bad it can be rather than how it is for everyone."

From the small demo built in a single weekend, Kay and his team will be developing Auti-sim into a full-fledged game. There will be more interaction, artificially intelligent characters, and new locations "like a classroom or a schoolbus or a mall." While the game is not for profit, Kay says he's looking for funding either from government agencies or other people and groups that "share our goal of raising awareness for autism-related difficulties."

Promoted Comments

I'm a regular everyday IT nerd, I have good customer service/coworker skills but it takes a lot out of me. I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". Most days i'm ok at being nice, helpful and socially acceptable at least on the surface.

But some days this is what its like, and today is one of those days. I can hear everything, i can smell everything, the screen is suddenly too bright today, the sink in the room next to me has been dripping once every 30 seconds, and the muffled sound of my neighbors kid yammering are killing me right now.

but this is the first time i've seen it in a demonstrable form. I was diagnosed with ADHD 25 years ago, and go through overstimualtion at this level (audio-wise it nails it, the visual thing isnt exact in my case)

I do wonder sometimes if i am autistic, but i think its more likely im very anti-social with adult ADHD setting off sensory overload occasionaly. ( i have no problem reading peoples faces, in fact i might be too tuned into reading body language)

All I can say is that this is pretty much right for myself, and my wife as well. We are both clinical autistics (Aspergers in the old system), and walking into Walmart or other large stores is a lot like this. It's not that life looks like this, it's that life feels like this. It quickly gets to a point at which you can't take in any details.

The more noise, action and people, the more we just have to stare at the floor. If it gets too bad, we need to escape and we just ditch everything we came in for and get the hell out.

4 years in hour house, and family is always irritated that we have 0 items on the walls, and the blinds always closed. The more bland and quiet the environment, the better things are for us. It's been this way since we can remember as kids. The big difference is that we don't get a pissy note from the teachers saying we don't talk enough. Usually I am working on breathing.

As somebody with an autistic brother and as somebody that used to teach in schools with some challenging pupils with specific needs, I must applaud the makers of this game for at least trying to approximate some of sense of what those with autism go through. It must be terrifying sometimes and actions and behaviours I've seen from family and friends make more sense after just a few moments with this simulation.

I have seen a number of people with autism simply crawl inside themselves and in extreme cases, do the worst thing imaginable to themselves. There isn't enough understanding. In my brother's case he was treated very early and is now studying for a PhD, totally independent of family and living his own life. For others, this isn't the outcome and a lot can be done with early intervention and understanding.

I'd be interested in seeing if they could make a simulator for dyslexia. I'm severely dyslexic (my writing isn't badly affected) and my problems are quite specific - obviously programmers would need to generalise dyslexic tendencies. For instance, I'm very sensitive to bright lights, can't remember lists (trying to order in a restaurant is a nightmare) and can't read from certain colours or remember shapes. How you put that in a simulator I have no idea but it can make everyday tasks challenging.

I get a weird sensory overload with wind. If I've been outdoors and the wind is blowing, I'm sort of unable to think for a while when I go back indoors. Like my brain has massive inertia and is impossible to slow the corrector mechanisms down fast enough.

I'd describe the sensation as similar to that feeling of intense weight when you get off a trampoline, only it also feels as though someone asked you a really important question that you didn't hear and can't ask for clarification.

Tactile defensiveness is another thing. I do warn people that tickling is not welcome, that I will lash out uncontrollably. I once accidentally gave an ex a black eye for a careless grab.

I'm sitting at my work desk shaking right now. There are so many things I've had problems with since I was little that I didn't identify as problems make sense right now. This is the most epiphany type moment I've ever had. Partially from the short video in the article, but mostly from the other comments and I can't say thanks enough for having a way to describe things. Just this past Saturday the Mrs. and I were fighting when out running errands because I told her it was enough and we needed to go home. She wanted to finish errands and go to a bookstore to kill a couple hours until the one place we needed to go to opened. I know I was upset and irrational, but now I see it as a sort of shutdown mode. I spent all of Sunday sleeping or dealing with auditory overload and not really being able to identify it as such. Even Monday I was having problem with sounds. I try to describe it to her as nothing is distinct, it's just noise, but she doesn't get it. Maybe the video will help some with describing it to her. In overload mode, I don't hear people talking or kids playing, it's just noise. And not white static buzzing; it is harsh grating noise. I know I'm hearing the TV in the other room, the Mrs. talking, the neighbor's dog barking, the kiddo playing upstairs, but no sound is distinct and I can't separate them from each other. Then there are the way some described themselves as "playing human". That's how some days are for me. I know my reactions to other people are canned imitations of how I've seen others behave because I've assigned that reaction to that circumstance. It's not the way I want to react, but the way I'm "supposed" to react.The clarity with which I'm seeing my own life and behaviors is almost scaring me right now.

I'm a regular everyday IT nerd, I have good customer service/coworker skills but it takes a lot out of me. I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". Most days i'm ok at being nice, helpful and socially acceptable at least on the surface.

But some days this is what its like, and today is one of those days. I can hear everything, i can smell everything, the screen is suddenly too bright today, the sink in the room next to me has been dripping once every 30 seconds, and the muffled sound of my neighbors kid yammering are killing me right now.

but this is the first time i've seen it in a demonstrable form. I was diagnosed with ADHD 25 years ago, and go through overstimualtion at this level (audio-wise it nails it, the visual thing isnt exact in my case)

I do wonder sometimes if i am autistic, but i think its more likely im very anti-social with adult ADHD setting off sensory overload occasionaly. ( i have no problem reading peoples faces, in fact i might be too tuned into reading body language)

All I can say is that this is pretty much right for myself, and my wife as well. We are both clinical autistics (Aspergers in the old system), and walking into Walmart or other large stores is a lot like this. It's not that life looks like this, it's that life feels like this. It quickly gets to a point at which you can't take in any details.

The more noise, action and people, the more we just have to stare at the floor. If it gets too bad, we need to escape and we just ditch everything we came in for and get the hell out.

4 years in hour house, and family is always irritated that we have 0 items on the walls, and the blinds always closed. The more bland and quiet the environment, the better things are for us. It's been this way since we can remember as kids. The big difference is that we don't get a pissy note from the teachers saying we don't talk enough. Usually I am working on breathing.

All I can say is that this is pretty much right for myself, and my wife as well. We are both clinical autistics (Aspergers in the old system), and walking into Walmart or other large stores is a lot like this. It's not that life looks like this, it's that life feels like this. It quickly gets to a point at which you can't take in any details.

The more noise, action and people, the more we just have to stare at the floor. If it gets too bad, we need to escape and we just ditch everything we came in for and get the hell out.

4 years in hour house, and family is always irritated that we have 0 items on the walls, and the blinds always closed. The more bland and quiet the environment, the better things are for us. It's been this way since we can remember as kids. The big difference is that we don't get a pissy note from the teachers saying we don't talk enough. Usually I am working on breathing.

I know its joked around a lot but "find a happy place" happens a lot in those situations like you describe. Its not a conscious 'find a happy place' or 'im in a bubble nobody can touch me' mantra... its a non-conscious ...retreat inside your own mind, get in and get out- MODE. I think "Mode" would help describe what i mean compared to a conscious decision.

I know its joked around a lot but "find a happy place" happens a lot in those situations like you describe. Its not a conscious 'find a happy place' or 'im in a bubble nobody can touch me' mantra... its a non-conscious ...retreat inside your own mind, get in and get out- MODE. I think "Mode" would help describe what i mean compared to a conscious decision.

heh heh heh yes, we have heard that as well. So, turn up the sound volume and the general gamma of the game, and see if you can find "a happy place". I usually can, but its about a mile away! I have never found a happy spot in a mall or large shop, because people are then always saying stuff like "excuse me" or "move out of the way". One person even was nice enough to say "So, you buying something or just going to stand there looking stupid?". Hard to get happy about that. All I want to ask at the time is "Where the fuck is "out"?!?!?!

I know its joked around a lot but "find a happy place" happens a lot in those situations like you describe. Its not a conscious 'find a happy place' or 'im in a bubble nobody can touch me' mantra... its a non-conscious ...retreat inside your own mind, get in and get out- MODE. I think "Mode" would help describe what i mean compared to a conscious decision.

heh heh heh yes, we have heard that as well. So, turn up the sound volume and the general gamma of the game, and see if you can find "a happy place". I usually can, but its about a mile away! I have never found a happy spot in a mall or large shop, because people are then always saying stuff like "excuse me" or "move out of the way". One person even was nice enough to say "So, you buying something or just going to stand there looking stupid?". Hard to get happy about that. All I want to ask at the time is "Where the fuck is "out"?!?!?!

Oh that wasn't a suggestion or even a solution, what i mean to say the retreating into myself and putting my head down and avoiding people is a subconcious reaction to overstimulous... even in the video above i believe that a regular everyday person can understand that you can't just 'shut it out'but that doesnt stop my subconscious reaction to shutdown socially and just try to survive getting through as fast as possible.

I worded my statement poorly because i didnt mean to suggest in any way that you can just get over it by the power of mental will. 'put some headphones on or get over it' was something i heard a lot in my childhood... im not suggesting i am the same, but i can at least understand the concept.

Just learning that this sort of simulator is realistically possible opened my eyes somewhat to the realities of autism. I was under the impression that the issues that some autistic people have with perception occurred 24/7 which would make something like this very difficult to create - how do you describe something as fuzzy, loud or annoying when it's your normal everyday experience? Surely it's relative? How do I know that what I describe as blue is how you see it?

It now appears that this isn't the case and it can actually occur in bursts? Is that correct?

As somebody with an autistic brother and as somebody that used to teach in schools with some challenging pupils with specific needs, I must applaud the makers of this game for at least trying to approximate some of sense of what those with autism go through. It must be terrifying sometimes and actions and behaviours I've seen from family and friends make more sense after just a few moments with this simulation.

I have seen a number of people with autism simply crawl inside themselves and in extreme cases, do the worst thing imaginable to themselves. There isn't enough understanding. In my brother's case he was treated very early and is now studying for a PhD, totally independent of family and living his own life. For others, this isn't the outcome and a lot can be done with early intervention and understanding.

I'd be interested in seeing if they could make a simulator for dyslexia. I'm severely dyslexic (my writing isn't badly affected) and my problems are quite specific - obviously programmers would need to generalise dyslexic tendencies. For instance, I'm very sensitive to bright lights, can't remember lists (trying to order in a restaurant is a nightmare) and can't read from certain colours or remember shapes. How you put that in a simulator I have no idea but it can make everyday tasks challenging.

"She was saying that through all her training she'd never had an experience like this," Kay said. "So imagine you were trying to help people with an issue like this, but you have no idea what it feels like. I think in that way it's really powerful and helpful."

I think it's wrong to help people psychologically, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, when you, yourself, don't have any idea what it's like to experience this sort of thing. It's like the blind leading the sighted. AT LEAST take some LSD or magic mushrooms to get even somewhat of an approximation. When I was in college, I met this girl who was studying to become a psychologist. I remember her telling me how she used to read through the DSM IV (the big book/tome that classifies various disorders) while on LSD so that she could get a better sense of what it was like. I thought it to be a very reasonable approach. Unlike other fields where you can use empirical data to understand what you're observing, the mind is entirely SUBJECTIVE; as such, reading something only imparts an unverifiable notion that's dependent upon the reader's past experiences. I don't see how someone can be legally qualified to work in a particular sub-specied of a particular field without knowing that field. Like a doctor doing surgery when he/she has never performed surgery before. Yikes!

While empathy is extremely important, and a simulator like this may help many with their empathy, taking acid to better understand various psych disorders is much like trying to understand Beethoven by hitting yourself on the head with a violin! Or shooting yourself to understand suicide. I don't see how any serious, scientist/clinician could follow such a plan. Not to mention your own argument which is that the mind is entirely SUBJECTIVE. If this is the case, then your girl had no idea that taking LSD would in anyway simulate what someone with a psych disorder was experiencing because her experience with acid would be subjective and a person with a psych disorders experience is also subjective. This is kinda like saying, I want to understand what it is like to drive a car so I will go hang gliding. Two different experiences.

I'm a regular everyday IT nerd, I have good customer service/coworker skills but it takes a lot out of me. I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". Most days i'm ok at being nice, helpful and socially acceptable at least on the surface.

But some days this is what its like, and today is one of those days. I can hear everything, i can smell everything, the screen is suddenly too bright today, the sink in the room next to me has been dripping once every 30 seconds, and the muffled sound of my neighbors kid yammering are killing me right now.

but this is the first time i've seen it in a demonstrable form. I was diagnosed with ADHD 25 years ago, and go through overstimualtion at this level (audio-wise it nails it, the visual thing isnt exact in my case)

I do wonder sometimes if i am autistic, but i think its more likely im very anti-social with adult ADHD setting off sensory overload occasionaly. ( i have no problem reading peoples faces, in fact i might be too tuned into reading body language)

I wonder if you have Sensory Processing Sensitivity. I've wondered the same thing about myself, as it would explain a lot. Many of the things in your post (and your subsequent posts in this thread) resonate with my experiences strongly.

As somebody on the autistic spectrum (PDD-NOS in the old system) I think this is great. I just wish that bit would have all the senses including touch. Its very annoying to experience things that human language describes poorly. For example, I cannot stand mashed potatoes, I have the same reaction to the thought of eating poop. Awareness is good!

I'm a regular everyday IT nerd, I have good customer service/coworker skills but it takes a lot out of me. I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". Most days i'm ok at being nice, helpful and socially acceptable at least on the surface.

But some days this is what its like, and today is one of those days. I can hear everything, i can smell everything, the screen is suddenly too bright today, the sink in the room next to me has been dripping once every 30 seconds, and the muffled sound of my neighbors kid yammering are killing me right now.

but this is the first time i've seen it in a demonstrable form. I was diagnosed with ADHD 25 years ago, and go through overstimualtion at this level (audio-wise it nails it, the visual thing isnt exact in my case)

I do wonder sometimes if i am autistic, but i think its more likely im very anti-social with adult ADHD setting off sensory overload occasionaly. ( i have no problem reading peoples faces, in fact i might be too tuned into reading body language)

Not necessarily Autism.I experience disabling sensory overload such as the one you described (sound, light, smell and even touch) very often and I have social difficulties all my life, I have high IQ and I'm very obsessive and selective about my interests and intolerant of interruptions when I'm enjoying them, but at the same time I haven't gotten far in life because of my many limitations, I'm just a support tech. I'm 45yo and I've learned by now to somewhat cope with this but it's sometimes hard. Pretty much clubs, restaurants and shopping malls are out for me. I've been known to run out of social events in panic. It all combined causes anxiety and depression. So I've undergone long psychological testing in 2011 at two academic institutions and I did not meet the cutoff for the spectrum and I do not have ADHD either. Although I was very close. But in the end they said they didn't know for sure where my sensory overload was coming from. It sucks. I just have to deal with it.

I can't help feeling that somtimes the labels attached to these conditions are of questionable value and run the risk of masking the true spectrum of an individual's problems. It's not like other areas of medicine, where we can say, 'You have TB, take these drugs for six months and you'll be cured. Next!'

In some cases (especially with regard to the parents), attaching a name can give a sense of relief, in that the condition has been medicalised and turned into a Disorder. While this has certain social benefits, allowing parents to identify others facing similar problems and learn from them, it can end up placing the focus on the Disorder rather than the particular undesireable manifestations that are causing the problem at hand.

This is really just a fancy way of saying everyone is different, and everyone is really just an expression of part of the wide range of human variation, a variability that operates over a large number of dimensions.

Some autistics say this matches their experiences very well, others say it bears no resemblance at all. That's really not surprising because 'autism' covers such a wide range of alteration from what we consider the norm of neurological function. This is a simulation of hypersensitivity. It's not a simulation of autism. It might be of help to provide an understanding of what some sufferers are experiencing, but it might be entirely misleading if you expect it to portray what any particular person is going through. If you want to do that you need to focus on the person rather than the Disorder.

I can't help feeling that somtimes the labels attached to these conditions are of questionable value and run the risk of masking the true spectrum of an individual's problems. It's not like other areas of medicine, where we can say, 'You have TB, take these drugs for six months and you'll be cured. Next!'

I agree. They're just labels for something that is very unique for each affected individual and not deeply understood. I have lots of the symptoms, obsessions, repetitive behaviors and problems related to Aspergers but I can relate emotionally and emphatically to people, I can read feelings and body language like pretty much everyone else, so that rules out Aspergers. Actually, I'm more perceptive of body language that most people that I know. But I am sure that I'm not wired like most "normal" people, but... they were unable find a label for me

I'm a regular everyday IT nerd, I have good customer service/coworker skills but it takes a lot out of me. I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". Most days i'm ok at being nice, helpful and socially acceptable at least on the surface.

But some days this is what its like, and today is one of those days. I can hear everything, i can smell everything, the screen is suddenly too bright today, the sink in the room next to me has been dripping once every 30 seconds, and the muffled sound of my neighbors kid yammering are killing me right now.

but this is the first time i've seen it in a demonstrable form. I was diagnosed with ADHD 25 years ago, and go through overstimualtion at this level (audio-wise it nails it, the visual thing isnt exact in my case)

I do wonder sometimes if i am autistic, but i think its more likely im very anti-social with adult ADHD setting off sensory overload occasionaly. ( i have no problem reading peoples faces, in fact i might be too tuned into reading body language)

I experience sensory overload such as the one you described very often and I have social difficulties all my life, I have high IQ and I'm very obsessive and selective about my interests and intolerant of interruptions when I'm enjoying them, but at the same time I haven't gotten far in life because of my many limitations, I'm just a support tech. I'm 45yo and I've learned by now to somewhat cope with this but it's sometimes hard. Pretty much clubs, restaurants and shopping malls are out for me. I've been known to run out of social events in panic. It all combined causes anxiety and depression. So I've undergone long psychological testing in 2011 at two academic institutions and I did not meet the cutoff for Asperger's/Autism and I do not have ADHD either. Although I was very close. But in the end they said they didn't know for sure where my sensory overload was coming from. It sucks. I just have to deal with it.

I can relate to a lot of that, like i said, my people skills are basically programmed in. My upbringing was filled with a LOT of how to keep up appearances and image or mom would be mortified. I have her to thank for that now because the ability to play a human being at work is a big deal as you just described.

I can relate to a lot of that, like i said, my people skills are basically programmed in. My upbringing was filled with a LOT of how to keep up appearances and image or mom would be mortified. I have her to thank for that now because the ability to play a human being at work is a big deal as you just described.

You said: "I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". That's totally me. I feel like I'm myself either alone, with my wife or someone I know very, very well. People are often surprised to learn about my troubles: "But... you're so good with people!?" Yeah, but that burns me out flat. I'm "peopled out" as they say. When I leave the office I feel like all life drained from me and then my energy returns slowly when I'm back at home. The only human interactions I enjoy are rides with my bike club. I feel like a lot of people in that club are like me

There is no harm in making light of a situation if that's how he likes to deal with it. As someone with both a disabled sister and brother for various reasons and severity, it becomes almost essential to joke about it, for them and for me. If you can't joke, then you're more insensitive than those who do in my honest opinion. There is no room for sugar coating the world, it just undermines their intelligence.

I've gotten out of touch with the current autism literature, but here goes.

This is interesting, but I wonder about the emphasis on sensory overload as “loudness” and such, as opposed to something more interpersonally grounded, the absence of an interpersonal ‘container’ and all that implies. It’s not as though autistic kids just need to have the volume turned down. There's something about an inability to internalize a comforting presence that can be internally referred to in the face of stimuli. Bruno Bettleheim went disastrously overboard with that idea, blaming it on "refrigerator mothers." But, from a more neurological standpoint, other researchers have considered angles like primitive fear reflexes gone awry, Almost immediately after birth we lose an unmediated relationship to the sensory world, it starts getting processed in reference to a sense of one's proximity to safety. I recall seeing some researchers emphasize how autistic babies don't, in reaction to unfamiliar situations, scan their mother's (parent's) face to see if they should worry. They somehow lack the ability to build up a buffer that is usually constituted, or organized around, something interpersonal.

You said: "I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". That's totally me. I feel like I'm myself either alone, with my wife or someone I know very, very well. People are often surprised to learn about my troubles: "But... you're so good with people!?" Yeah, but that burns me out flat. I'm "peopled out" as they say. When I leave the office I feel like all life drained from me and then my energy returns slowly when I'm back at home. The only human interactions I enjoy are rides with my bike club. I feel like a lot of people in that club are like me

We had a snowstorm (normal occurance) last week up here, i found myself tranced by the particularly giant snowflakes and started daydreaming about wandering into the woods, finding a evergreen tree...breaking a few branches and making a shelter out of it... just sit in isolation "detoxing" which is what i call it when i'm peopled-out hah. I've always enjoyed snow and winter, hence my username, sitting in a empty field deep in the woods under a tree in whiteout snow has always been a great detox for me since i was a kid. but like you people are surprised if they ever find this out... and on the flip side my mom used to complain that she'd hear how nice and sociable i am from people who saw me at my job in highschool.

We had a snowstorm (normal occurance) last week up here, i found myself tranced by the particularly giant snowflakes and started daydreaming about wandering into the woods, finding a evergreen tree...breaking a few branches and making a shelter out of it... just sit in isolation "detoxing" which is what i call it when i'm peopled-out hah. I've always enjoyed snow and winter, hence my username, sitting in a empty field deep in the woods under a tree in whiteout snow has always been a great detox for me since i was a kid. but like you people are surprised if they ever find this out... and on the flip side my mom used to complain that she'd hear how nice and sociable i am from people who saw me at my job in highschool.

Nope, except for the cold, it's quite enjoyable. Reminds me several years back when we had the big snowstorm that took out the electricity for almost a month. Talk about quiet. Even rural areas can be noisy.

astropheed wrote:

Zak wrote:

fishburn wrote:

Sounds cool. What guns are available?

Lookup the definition of "insensitive"...

Look up 'too sensitive'.

There is no harm in making light of a situation if that's how he likes to deal with it. As someone with both a disabled sister and brother for various reasons and severity, it becomes almost essential to joke about it, for them and for me. If you can't joke, then you're more insensitive than those who do in my honest opinion. There is no room for sugar coating the world, it just undermines their intelligence.

Better to laugh one's way through life, because the alternative is to shoot up the place.

I think it's wrong to help people psychologically, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, when you, yourself, don't have any idea what it's like to experience this sort of thing. It's like the blind leading the sighted.

So prior to early 2013 it was unethical to try to help these children at all?

syndeticdotorg wrote:

AT LEAST take some LSD or magic mushrooms to get even somewhat of an approximation. When I was in college, I met this girl who was studying to become a psychologist. I remember her telling me how she used to read through the DSM IV (the big book/tome that classifies various disorders) while on LSD so that she could get a better sense of what it was like. I thought it to be a very reasonable approach. Unlike other fields where you can use empirical data to understand what you're observing, the mind is entirely SUBJECTIVE; as such, reading something only imparts an unverifiable notion that's dependent upon the reader's past experiences. I don't see how someone can be legally qualified to work in a particular sub-specied of a particular field without knowing that field. Like a doctor doing surgery when he/she has never performed surgery before. Yikes!

How is taking LSD supposed to help understand psych disorders? It might mimic maybe one. I think your friend was rationalizing what she was doing.

And I hope no one vulnerable is under her care when she has a flashback.

"She was saying that through all her training she'd never had an experience like this," Kay said. "So imagine you were trying to help people with an issue like this, but you have no idea what it feels like. I think in that way it's really powerful and helpful."

I think it's wrong to help people psychologically, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, when you, yourself, don't have any idea what it's like to experience this sort of thing. It's like the blind leading the sighted. AT LEAST take some LSD or magic mushrooms to get even somewhat of an approximation. When I was in college, I met this girl who was studying to become a psychologist. I remember her telling me how she used to read through the DSM IV (the big book/tome that classifies various disorders) while on LSD so that she could get a better sense of what it was like. ...

LSD doesn't mimic any psychological disorder. I'd say more but I'm not qualified yet, so first I'm going to go huff some gas and hit myself in the head with a hammer repeatedly so I can understand what kind of degenerate mental state your undergraduate psych major friend must be in all the time.

I can relate to a lot of that, like i said, my people skills are basically programmed in. My upbringing was filled with a LOT of how to keep up appearances and image or mom would be mortified. I have her to thank for that now because the ability to play a human being at work is a big deal as you just described.

You said: "I feel like " i'm not a real person, i just play one at work". That's totally me. I feel like I'm myself either alone, with my wife or someone I know very, very well. People are often surprised to learn about my troubles: "But... you're so good with people!?" Yeah, but that burns me out flat. I'm "peopled out" as they say. When I leave the office I feel like all life drained from me and then my energy returns slowly when I'm back at home. The only human interactions I enjoy are rides with my bike club. I feel like a lot of people in that club are like me

That's me as well. I "trained" myself to understand social interaction but there comes a point where I can be clueless. Like knowing that I should act a certain way in social situation but not fully understanding why. The few times I've gone to a club the night was a blur due to the near constant sensory overload. My idea of "going out" is a quiet restaurant and a coffee shop. Heck, even movies can be overwhelming to the point I avoid them unless its a movie I really think is worth seeing in the theater.

My fiancee is the one having the hardest time understanding that I don't like being touched "without permission" and that unless I make the move to "break out" that my personal space is sacrosanct. There's only so many times you can say it in words or try to be subtle before I realize she just doesn't get that about me.

All I can say is that this is pretty much right for myself, and my wife as well. We are both clinical autistics (Aspergers in the old system), and walking into Walmart or other large stores is a lot like this. It's not that life looks like this, it's that life feels like this. It quickly gets to a point at which you can't take in any details.

The more noise, action and people, the more we just have to stare at the floor. If it gets too bad, we need to escape and we just ditch everything we came in for and get the hell out.

4 years in hour house, and family is always irritated that we have 0 items on the walls, and the blinds always closed. The more bland and quiet the environment, the better things are for us. It's been this way since we can remember as kids. The big difference is that we don't get a pissy note from the teachers saying we don't talk enough. Usually I am working on breathing.

This is very similar to me (mildly autistic). The staring at the floor thing in crowds is what I do too. Although sensory overload is often a case of sensory stimulation being too much in terms of the specific sense, overload is a full body sensation, almost a panic state or recaoil.

I seem to have largely gotten over visual overstimulation, but I still carry earplugs with me at all times. It's high frequencies that do it. I still hear that so-called "mosquito tone" that one is supposed to be inured to with age, but for me it's like a full body pain-spasm. I am so happy that CRT displays are now gone. The capacitor whine was unbearable.

I have ADHD and I've never been able to comfortably conduct myself in public or social situations. I can't get over the fact that there are people all over and I just want to get away. I have no clue how to handle social interactions. I often come off as tactless and even offensive when I'm only trying to be sincere. I don't read people all that well until they become upset with me. I'm very good a telling when someone is upset, likely because I often upset people.

I highly prefer to remain reclusive. I'm more comfortable in places without the chaos of life. I used to work in retail at a home improvement store and I always felt anxious when I was there. It was so unsettling to be in a large, busy place where, at any moment, some random stranger might start asking you questions and you don't know what their disposition is. Every situation was ripe with potential volatility. Driving is a nightmare for me. All those people operating cars that obey their whims and so many lacking the cognitive faculties to proceed in a orderly, predictable fashion.

Not necessarily Autism.I experience disabling sensory overload such as the one you described (sound, light, smell and even touch) very often and I have social difficulties all my life, I have high IQ and I'm very obsessive and selective about my interests and intolerant of interruptions when I'm enjoying them, but at the same time I haven't gotten far in life because of my many limitations, I'm just a support tech. I'm 45yo and I've learned by now to somewhat cope with this but it's sometimes hard. Pretty much clubs, restaurants and shopping malls are out for me. I've been known to run out of social events in panic. It all combined causes anxiety and depression. So I've undergone long psychological testing in 2011 at two academic institutions and I did not meet the cutoff for the spectrum and I do not have ADHD either. Although I was very close. But in the end they said they didn't know for sure where my sensory overload was coming from. It sucks. I just have to deal with it.

This sounds a lot like me. I'm not officially diagnosed because I don't want it on medical records for personal reasons right now, but I saw a shrink about it and went to a group and the discussions we had clearly indicated that I was on the spectrum. I am fairly mild and able to manner my way through it, but it is crippling and I find myself struggling to believe my "I'm OK/You're OK" mantra of self-acceptance because someone with an IQ as high as me should be a doctor or something, right? Very hard to deal with and hard to explain to others. My ex-girlfriend sort of downplayed it until we moved in together and then it was too much for her.

One thing I've learned is to stay away from caffeine as much as possible. A cup of coffee first thing is okay, but after that it really amplifies the unpleasantness.

I can't help feeling that somtimes the labels attached to these conditions are of questionable value and run the risk of masking the true spectrum of an individual's problems. It's not like other areas of medicine, where we can say, 'You have TB, take these drugs for six months and you'll be cured. Next!'

In some cases (especially with regard to the parents), attaching a name can give a sense of relief, in that the condition has been medicalised and turned into a Disorder. While this has certain social benefits, allowing parents to identify others facing similar problems and learn from them, it can end up placing the focus on the Disorder rather than the particular undesireable manifestations that are causing the problem at hand.

This is really just a fancy way of saying everyone is different, and everyone is really just an expression of part of the wide range of human variation, a variability that operates over a large number of dimensions.

Some autistics say this matches their experiences very well, others say it bears no resemblance at all. That's really not surprising because 'autism' covers such a wide range of alteration from what we consider the norm of neurological function. This is a simulation of hypersensitivity. It's not a simulation of autism. It might be of help to provide an understanding of what some sufferers are experiencing, but it might be entirely misleading if you expect it to portray what any particular person is going through. If you want to do that you need to focus on the person rather than the Disorder.

I used to sort of agree with you and i understand your intention but i think it is not quite true. My understanding is that the broad scope of the "Autism" label is due to a lack of in depth understanding of the actual condition.

This doesn't mean the term is useless though, common symptoms like sensory overload and a lack of a theory of mind can be suggested as common possibilities and that can help other people understand to a greater degree.

In the future hopefully we will be able to be more specific about the details of each individuals case but for now if the best we can do is say "Autism" with a likelihood of X, Y and Z then that is better (and more specific) than nothing or just saying "people are different" because unless you go and read about the "theory of mind" module and what a lack of it implies you won't be able to imagine how that would affect someone - partly because a normal person is not even aware such a thing exists - it is too fundamental a part of their world which is why it took psychologists so long to realise it even existed (only through experimentation and the slow realisation that the world as we see it - colour etc - is not the world as it is but instead our representation layered on top of the real world by hundreds or thousands of dedicated processing modules in the brain).

I think of it like this: in the 1900s maybe a lot of stuff was covered by the term 'malaise'. It was broad and not ideal but better than nothing and as time went on it became much more specific.

I do completely agree with you that it's important to focus on the individual and understand them specifically but I also think the term autism is perhaps useful because it can quickly convey a set of likely issues that the individual may have and therefore can immediately explain certain behaviours. As I say it would be better if it could be more specific but I don't think diagnosis and understanding of the brain is at that point yet (I am willing to accept that I may be wrong if anyone has more up to date info)

I was visiting a psychiatrist for the first time who specialised in the autism spectrum and he was aghast because I described my experience of life as "running overclocked in software". He'd been working on a book and that was his chosen analogy, and he was very proud of it.

Most people have purpose-built auxilliary processors for things like emotion and social interaction, but autistic people experience everything though the "self" CPU. You can do pretty much anything if you try really hard, are prepared (with the right software in the form of knowledge to help rationalise) and have enough power (IQ) and energy, but occasionally you're just going to overheat or your buffers will fail. My blue-screen is panic, and that's when I nip out for a drink (this isn't often).

There is very little you can do about this besides carefully planning your day and teaching yourself what situations to avoid. Because you seem normal, people are actually very intolerant of your lapses and so you get described as "irrational" or "difficult" when all you need is time.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.